February, 1999
Mr Darcy would have a fit. The demure and dignified young Lizzie Bennet who stole his heart - and that of the TV viewing public - in the smash hit BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is sporting long white dreadlocks, combat trousers, biker boots and has a permanently lit roll-up in her mouth.
Not much pride in her appearance, that's for sure. But then actress Jennifer Ehle, who won a Bafta award for her portrayal of the young Miss Bennet, says she couldn't wait to get out of period costume and into something a little more 'liberating'.
The result is playing a confused, dreadlocked little rich girl in the latest British film This Year's Love, which opens this week.
Liberating seems something of an understatement as her character, Sophie, is a mixed-up single mum who goes through lovers at a rate of knots, and is more than partial to the odd drug and booze binge.
She's about as different from Lizzie Bennet as Mr Darcy is from Wayne Slob, and Ehle couldn't be more relieved.
"It was great to play someone for whom there's no warmth or charm - or bonnets," jokes the 29-year-old actress.
"I had quite a run of parts which I'm very grateful for, but they were of warm, wonderful women standing by their men. Sophie is very different, she's standing by herself, scared to let anybody in."
So enthusiastic was Jennifer to get under the tattooed skin of her latest character that it was her suggestion to give Sophie her striking hairstyle.
"I was so tempted to chop it all off and tear it all out though," she recalls. "They were hair extensions. They were in for two months, and it took six or seven hours to put them in, but I couldn't really complain because it had been my idea," she laughs.
"They just all came, sort of waving around me. Nobody actually said anything but they were definitely waiting for this person with a great mat on her head to go."
Ehle even offered to have her nose pierced for the part but was told she didn't have to go that far. "I wear a little magnetic nose stud, but I did suggest having it pierced properly."
This truly British movie, being touted as a rival to Notting Hill, Hugh Grant's forthcoming 'sequel' to Four Weddings and a Funeral, was filmed entirely on location in London.
It boasts a dizzying line up of bright young Brit-packers, including Catherine McCormack and Dougray Scott, as well as everyone's favourite home grown talent, Kathy Burke, and has actually been financed in Britain, unlike many other 'British' films. The ensemble cast play troubled 30-somethings who spend most of their time in and out of doomed relationships.
Aside from an obsessive, suicidal young nutcase, played by BackBeat star Ian Hart, Ehle's character is one of the most screwed up of the bunch.
Not that she cares, because the 29-year old actress was not only desperate to get out of corsets and into combats, she was keen to have a high profile role again. For, despite her massive success in Pride and Prejudice the fair-haired star reveals she hasn't exactly been inundated with work since.
"I've had long periods of unemployment," she says candidly. "It was only recently that I had one year where I only worked for six weeks.
"All actors panic about it. I think as soon as a job finishes one part of you might be going 'I never want to do that again', and the other part is going, 'Oh but I would have liked the choice, I hope I will be asked'.
"Every day is slightly different when the work isn't coming in, but more or less neurotic," she says, smiling wryly.
"That's why it's a gift when a script like this drops through your door."
Despite her fears about not working, her CV is still pretty impressive. She won a Best New TV actress for her role in the steamy drama The Camomile Lawn, she's played opposite Stephen Fry in Wilde, won rave reviews for her role as murdered army wife Penny McAllister in Beyond Reason and recently made her Hollywood debut in Paradise Road.
Acting is in her blood. Her father is American screenwriter John Ehle, her mother is actress Rosemary Harris - and clearly, however difficult it gets she loves it. "I once made a decision to take time off to see if I could find some kind of life that I could have when I wasn't working.
"But it didn't work so I went back to work," she laughs.
Resolutely private, Ehle won't reveal whether her quest for a life outside acting includes finding romance. She has been linked with actors Toby Stephens and Colin Firth, her co-star in Pride and Prejudice, in the past, but remains tight-lipped about whether there is anyone in her life now.
What she is quick to stress, however, is that she is nothing like bed-hopping Sophie.
"It's certainly not the way I live, personally," she says. "All the characters in the movie seem so desperate and lonely. They seem to jump in and out of relationships much more quickly than most people I know - certainly more than I do.
"There is something quite desperate, perhaps with Sophie in particular, but they are all looking for something. But then that's the beauty of the script. It is wonderfully well observed."